Originally Posted by
reese
Tina wrote about Phil in both of her memoirs, I, TINA and MY LOVE STORY. She mentioned that she liked how Phil respected her voice as he would make her stick to the melody as opposed to overdoing it as Ike would have her do to sell his compositions. She also mentioned that the rehearsing and recording of RIVER DEEP was so different from her Ike experiences that she would blank on what happened when she left for the day. Ike would ask her how the song was coming and she couldn't even sing it to him. But one day on the way to a show, Ike asked again and she sang it for him in the car. Even without accompaniment, Ike was impressed.
Re the RIVER DEEP session, Tina says there were tons of people in the studio. At one point, she wrote the arrangements were wrong and Phil ripped up all of the sheet music. When it came time to do her vocal, she had to do it multiple times and still couldn't get it quite as Phil wanted. She said she still doesn't believe she ever got the first line, "When I was a little girl..." right. She was working so hard that she was drenched in sweat and for the final take, she ripped off her blouse and recorded the song in her bra.
That's about it. She also mentioned how the record never found a home in the US as some thought it too black and others thought it too white. But she felt really proud of it and how its success in the UK exposed her to a totally new audience. Unfortunately, she never mentioned none of the other Philles material. But I gather A LOVE LIKE YOURS must have been a favorite as it remained in Ike and Tina's act for a long time.
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